DH

Demon hunters are relentless vigilantes who execute their infernal targets with an arsenal of ranged weapons. They crouch and take aim far from
danger, relying on bows, deadly traps, and projectiles to swiftly bring an end to the creatures that haunt their world.

DH Class Training Week (June 29 - July 6): Q&A with UL experts

Contributors, please use this build template
(copy&paste here) to organize and format new content. A build should contain Active Skills, Passive Skills, Gear and Affix Selection (optimal stats), as well as Team Buffs.

So I've spent some time playing my demon hunter on the ptr preparing for patch 2.1. This is the build I've personally found most effective in greater rifts. I'm not saying this is the best possible build for all combat scenarios, but I will say that I've had success with this build and encourage you to give it a try. This build utilizes a mixture of cold and fire spells to get the most out of rocket damage while maintaining 100% uptime on cull of the weak. This build requires the Marauder set and 2.842 Attacks Per Second Break Point. See chart for Attack Speed reference.http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/13271407601

Pros: Very high damage when there is multiple targets. Constant slow to help kite mobs when needed.

Cons: Weaker against single target scenarios such as the Rift Guardian.

2. Elemental Arrow - Frost Arrow. This spell will ping pong all over groups of enemy providing you with 100% uptime on Cull of the weak passive.

3. Multishot - Arsenal. Why add a fire spell into a cold build? With the Ballastics passive the damage the rockets from this ability do will out perform the cold multishot rune even with bonus to cold skill gear.

4. Cluster Arrow- Maelstrom. This ability is the strongest attack the demon hunter has in a scenario with 4 or more enemies.

5. Companion. With the Marauder set it doesn't matter which rune you choose here. You will get the benefit of them all.

6. Vault - Tumble. I prefer to use vault to escape from mobs and give some mobility between combat. Smoke Screen is an alternative choice for this skill slot.

Passives

1. Ballastics - Improve your rocket damage.

2. Cull of the Weak - Frost arrow is slowing all enemies so this benefit is active all the time.

3. Awareness - Everybody dies once in a while. This passive will give you that second chance.

4. Custom Engineering - Having that 5th sentry is an important damage boost on the higher greater rift levels

5. Steady Aim - Take this if you have a Hellfire Amulet providing one of the other passives.

Gearing

In this gearing section I will cover the items I consider best in slot for this particular build as well as some alternatives.

Weapon Choices:

EDIT: Hotfixed. Sentry no longer procs knock back. Use only if you lack the other weapon choices. Windforce - Combo with strongarm bracer for 20-30% extra damage for you and your party against enemies affected by the knock back effect. Less active playstyle as you will be resource starved if spending hate on damaging shots between sentry placement.